I saw this photo, by Dan Jones of Facebook, and it made me chuckle, one because the caption was great and two, because it reminded me about my time at Nordstrom and how they used to want us to sell a pair of shoe trees with every single shoe purchase. Not just dress shoe purchases, but EVERY shoe purchase. So if they guy was coming in to buy a pair of Merrell’s, you know that typical NW guy who loves in those Merrell slip on’s, then I should have been trying to slang him a pair of the worlds great $20 cedar shoe trees from Nordy’s to get that add-on sale and build my UPT’s. Adding on shoe trees to dress shoe sales made sense but anything else felt forced. So I used to boycott that rule. I would have rather sold the Merrell guy two pairs of Merrell, upselling him on a 2nd pair of shoes than a crappy pair of useless shoetrees.
So the question is then, what shoes need shoe trees? The simple answer is any shoe that is leather lined. Ideally a shoe that is leather lined, has a leather upper and needs to maintain a shape. So then you ask, what about my leather lined sneakers? Well, now that answer depends on how finicky you are and how much you want to invest in your shoes. If you are a throw away guy that wears shoes to bin later on and just get a new pair then you dont really need shoe trees. But if you like to preserve your shoes, and make sure they look their best at all times then by all means throw some shoe trees in those leather lined sneakers!
Shoe trees are always a good investment if you plan to maintain your shoes, their shape and their look. If you care about your shoes looking good then you need shoe trees. If you couldn’t care less, dont buy shoe trees!
Dan Jones
You used my photo and didn�t credit me!
Justin FitzPatrick
See the blog post now. How would you like me to credit you? A link to your personal Facebook account? If so pass it over
Domingo Sanchez
Brilliant photo!